'Orphan Black': Tatiana Maslany says to get ready for a 'high octane' season 2

It’s hard getting people to notice you when you are a new show on a small cable channel, but BBC America’s Orphan Black was able to gain a devoted fan base with its twisty tale of a woman discovering she is part of a clone conspiracy. Star Tatiana Maslany in particular gained industry recognition for her portrayal of seven different characters in season 1. So what will she and the show do for an encore when season 2 kicks off on tonight? Maslany already shared some intel on the new clone , told us what she thinks she can do even better in season 2, and also revealed her current favorite clone to play. Now she tells us what else to expect in season 2.

“The season starts in a really heightened place,” says Maslany. “Because we kind of left it totally insane — all the characters are at the crux of this huge epiphanies or relegations or traumas. Like Alison and Aynsley and Donnie. Where does Alison go from here? It definitely starts at a point of high octane. I don’t know how they manage to ebb and flow it like they do, but the writers are just ridiculous. The momentum continues, even though it becomes smaller in places. Like Sarah’s journey suddenly is like whoosh! and Alison’s journey gets pulled back a little bit.”

The drama went back into production earlier for season 2 to take advantage of the warmer weather and get outside more, and that includes more locations outside of the city of Toronto where the show is filmed. “It’s great ‘cause we shoot in these locations and I’m like, this feels like we’re shooting a feature film about this location right now,” Maslany told EW during a break in filming. “And then yesterday we were in a location and it felt like we were shooting a feature of that clone in another world and it’s just expanding the world, taking it out of the familiar places and not relying on the same stuff we had in season 1 to work again this year. We’re going, screw that stuff that you’ve seen! We’re putting them in a totally new environment and it’s really great.”

Something that is not so great for fans is seeing one of their favorite clones, Cosima, dealing with a respiratory illness that could prove to be fatal. Fan reaction has taken even Maslany by surprise. “I know, it’s nuts!” she says of viewers taking the character’s illness so personally. “To me it’s interesting to have Cosima dealing with the illness because she is the lightest and most fascinated with life, grasping at life. She lives so beautifully and fully, so to have her sick and having to analyze herself and analyze this thing inside her that normally she would look at from the outside with this clinical understanding, now it’s personal. It’s quite a fascinating thing, the fan response to Cosima. They’re very protective of her. They don’t want anything bad to happen. It’s great that our show bravely puts her in that peril. It raises the stakes for everybody, for all the clones.”